Location estimation or detection services provide location information to requesting computing devices. For example, applications executing on a mobile computing device such as a mobile telephone may request the location information to provide navigation services to a user, or display a map to the user of the current location. The accuracy of the estimated location, however, varies based on the particular location estimation service accessed, the geographic area of the mobile telephone, and other factors. For example, some services may consistently provide estimated locations with a high degree of accuracy for a particular geographic area and a low degree of accuracy in another geographic area.
To determine accuracy in existing systems, a test unit or device is placed in a known location, and a request is made to an existing location estimation service. The returned estimated location is compared to the known location to determine the accuracy of the estimation location. Such existing systems, however, are not scalable and fail to provide continual monitoring. For example, to determine the accuracy across numerous areas, the test has to be manually re-performed in each of the areas.
Other systems for testing accuracy rely on user feedback. For each estimated location provided to a user, the user opts to report the perceived degree of accuracy of the estimated location relative to the actual location of the mobile device. This reported accuracy, however, is subjective. Such existing systems lack granularity and accountability, and fail to provide objective output. Additionally, there is little incentive for users to provide feedback.